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Marcomer (Marcomeres, Marchomer, Marchomir) was a Frankish
Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
 leader (dux) in the late 4th century that invaded the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 in the year 388, when the usurper and leader of the whole of Roman Gaul
Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
, Magnus Maximus
Magnus Maximus

Magnus Clemens Maximus , also known as Maximianus, was a Hispanic Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire from 383 until his death, in 388, by order of Emperor Theodosius I....
 was surrounded in Aquileia
Aquileia

Aquileia is an ancient history Roman Republic city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic Sea at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times....
 by Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
.

The invasion is documented by Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman History and Bishops of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather....
 who cited the now lost work of Sulpicius Alexander
Sulpicius Alexander

Sulpicius Alexander was a Roman Empire historian of Germanic tribes. His work is lost, but his Historia in at least four books is quoted by Gregory of Tours....
. According to this account Marcomer, Sunno
Sunno

Sunno was a leader of the Franks in the late 4th century that invaded the Roman Empire in the year 388 when the usurper and leader of the whole of Roman Gaul, Magnus Maximus was surrounded in Aquileia by Theodosius I...
 and Genobaud
Genobaud

Genobaud was a leader of the Franks. He invaded the Roman Empire in the year 388.This invasion is documented by Gregory of Tours, who cited the now lost work of Sulpicius Alexander....
 invaded the Roman provinces Germania and Belgia in Gaul.






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Marcomer (Marcomeres, Marchomer, Marchomir) was a Frankish
Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
 leader (dux) in the late 4th century that invaded the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 in the year 388, when the usurper and leader of the whole of Roman Gaul
Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
, Magnus Maximus
Magnus Maximus

Magnus Clemens Maximus , also known as Maximianus, was a Hispanic Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire from 383 until his death, in 388, by order of Emperor Theodosius I....
 was surrounded in Aquileia
Aquileia

Aquileia is an ancient history Roman Republic city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic Sea at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times....
 by Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
.

The invasion is documented by Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman History and Bishops of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather....
 who cited the now lost work of Sulpicius Alexander
Sulpicius Alexander

Sulpicius Alexander was a Roman Empire historian of Germanic tribes. His work is lost, but his Historia in at least four books is quoted by Gregory of Tours....
. According to this account Marcomer, Sunno
Sunno

Sunno was a leader of the Franks in the late 4th century that invaded the Roman Empire in the year 388 when the usurper and leader of the whole of Roman Gaul, Magnus Maximus was surrounded in Aquileia by Theodosius I...
 and Genobaud
Genobaud

Genobaud was a leader of the Franks. He invaded the Roman Empire in the year 388.This invasion is documented by Gregory of Tours, who cited the now lost work of Sulpicius Alexander....
 invaded the Roman provinces Germania and Belgia in Gaul. They broke through the limes
Limes

A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the Borders of the Roman Empire.The Latin language noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting Field , a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any distinction or difference....
, killed many peoples, destroyed the most fruitfull lands and made the city Köln panic. After this raid the main body of the Franks moved back over the Rhine
Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
 with their booty. Some of the Franks remained in the Belgian woods. When the Roman generals of Magnus Maximus
Magnus Maximus

Magnus Clemens Maximus , also known as Maximianus, was a Hispanic Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire from 383 until his death, in 388, by order of Emperor Theodosius I....
, Nanninus and Quintinus heard the news in Trier
Trier

Trier is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle River. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC. Trier is not the only city claiming to be Germany's oldest, but it is the only one that bases this assertion on having the longest history as a city, as opposed to a mere settlement or army camp....
, they attacked those remaining Frankish forces and killed many of them. After this engagement Quintinus crossed the Rhine to punish the Franks in their own country, however his army was surrounded and beaten. Some Roman soldiers drowned in the marshes, others were killed by Franks, few made it back to their Empire.

Nanninus and Quintinus were replaced by Charietto
Charietto

Charietto was an Ancient Celtic headhunter/bounty hunter who worked for the Roman Empire to help defeat the Franks. He operated on the Rhine frontier near Trier....
 and Syrus
Syrus

In Greek mythology, Syrus was the son of Sinope and Apollo . The city of Syrus was named after him....
, who were again confronted by an attack of unindentifeid Franks.

Later after the fall of Magnus Maximus, Marcomer and Sunno held a short meeting about the recent attacks with the Frank Arbogastes, who was a general (magister militum) in the Roman army. The Franks delivered hostages as usual and Arbogastes returned to his winter quarters in Trier.

A couple of years later when Arbogastes had seized power and the West Roman army was nearly completely in the hands of Frankish mercenaries he crossed the Rhine with a Roman army into Germania, because he hated his own kin. Marcomer was seen as leader with Chatti
Chatti

The Chatti were an ancient Germanic tribes whose homeland was near the Weser. They settled in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of the Weser river and in the valleys and mountains of the Eder, Fulda and Werra river regions, a district approximately corresponding to Hesse-Kassel, though probably so...
 and Ampsivarii
Ampsivarii

The Ampsivarii, sometimes referenced by modern writers as Ampsivari , were a Germanic tribe mentioned by ancient authors. Their homeland was originally around the middle of the river Ems , which flows into the North Sea, at the Dutch-German border....
 but the two did not engage.

Later we hear from the poet Claudian
Claudian

Claudian was a Roman poet, who worked for Emperor Flavius Augustus Honorius and the latter's general Stilicho.A Greek language citizen of Alexandria, Claudian arrived in Rome before 395, and made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby becoming court poet....
 that Marcomer was arrested by Romans and banned to a villa in Tuscany. His brother Sunno
Sunno

Sunno was a leader of the Franks in the late 4th century that invaded the Roman Empire in the year 388 when the usurper and leader of the whole of Roman Gaul, Magnus Maximus was surrounded in Aquileia by Theodosius I...
 crossed the Rhine and tried to settle himself as leader of the band of Marchomir, however he was killed by his own people.

According to the later Liber Historiae Francorum
Liber Historiae Francorum

Liber historiae Francorum is a book that briefly starts as secondary source for early Franks in the time of Marcomer, and it gives a short breviarum until the time of the late Merovingians, where it becomes an important primary source of the contemporain history....
 Marcomer tried to unite the Franks after the death of Sunno. He proposed that the Franks should live under one king and candidated his own son Pharamond
Pharamond

Pharamond or Faramund is a legendary early king of the Franks first referred to in the anonymous 8th century Carolingian text Liber Historiae Francorum, also known as the Gesta regnum Francorum....
 (whose earliest mention is in this work, and who is considered mythological by scholars) for the kingship. This source does not relate whether Marcomer succeeded but from other later sources that recall the account of Liber Historiae Francorum, the impression may be gained that Pharamond was regarded as the first king of the Franks. However, modern scholars, such as Edward James, do not accept this account in the Liber Historiae Francorum as historical because Marcomer is called the son of the Trojan king Priam
Priam

In Greek mythology, Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous"....
, which is an obvious impossibility. Another difficulty with this account is that earlier sources such as Gregory of Tours make it crystal clear that a century after Marcomer there were still many Frankish kings, ruling over portions or separate tribes - indeed, it has been proposed that the word "ruler" may be more appropriate than "king", as there was at that time no one ruler over all the Frankish people. Clovis I
Clovis I

Clovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...
, according to Gregory of Tours, had several other rulers or kings killed in order to manipulate control and increase his territory, and through his machinations dethroned other leaders such as the Frankish counts of Triër, but even he was not the single Frankish king, for tribes as the Thuringii
Thuringii

The Thuringii or Toringi were a Germanic people which appeared late during the V?lkerwanderung in the Harz Mountains of central Germania around 280, in a region which still bears their name to this day — Thuringia....
, Chamavi
Chamavi

The Chamavi were a Germanic tribe of Late Antiquity and the Dark Ages. They first appear under that name in the 1st century AD Germania of Tacitus as a Germanic tribe that, for most of their history, existed along the North bank of the Lower Rhine in the region today called Hamaland after them, which is in the Gelderland province of the...
 and Bructeri
Bructeri

The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe located in northwestern Germany , between the Lippe River and Ems rivers south of the Teutoburg Forest, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia around 100 BC through 350....
 continued their own structures. After Clovis' death, his empire was divided again amongst his sons who ruled simultaneously over different areas.

Sources

  • Gregory of Tours
    Gregory of Tours

    Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman History and Bishops of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather....
    , Historia Francorum, Book II, paragraph 9.
  • Claudian
    Claudian

    Claudian was a Roman poet, who worked for Emperor Flavius Augustus Honorius and the latter's general Stilicho.A Greek language citizen of Alexandria, Claudian arrived in Rome before 395, and made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby becoming court poet....
    , Loeb classical Library, On Stilicho's Consulship (translation Platnauer)
  • Edward James, The Franks


See also

  • Arbogast
    Arbogast (general)

    Flavius Arbogastes , or Arbogast was a Franks general in the Roman Empire. It has been stated by some ancient historians that he was the son of Flavius Bauto, Valentinian II's former magister militum and protector before Arbogast, but modern scholars largely discount this claim ....
  • Clovis I
    Clovis I

    Clovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...